Men often hate each other because they fear each other; they fear each other because they don't know each other; they don't know each other because they can not communicate; they can not communicate because they are separated.
-- Martin Luther King, Jr -- Stride Toward Freedom: the Montgomery Story (1958)
Having grown up in several different "ethnically mixed" working class neighborhoods, I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement by Dr. King. He was one of my heroes.
It's hard to "hate someone" that rides the same bus that you to do to school everyday.
It's hard to "fear someone" that offers to help you with your homework.
It's hard not to laugh with your neighbor, of a different background, when you both share the same ironies that life throws at you, day after day.
That is the power of understanding, which can be discovered, by simply removing the "space between" us.
True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.
-- In a 1955 response to an accusation that he was "disturbing the peace" by his activism during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, as quoted in Let the Trumpet Sound : A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr (1982) by Stephen B. Oates
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Having grown up in the 60's, in a time of great social unrest, I can attest to the power of non-violent citizen actions.
It's hard to ignore waves of marchers being blasted by water canons; being chased by dogs and batons.
It's hard to remain neutral, when white-fear finds new forms of cruelty, and harm, and hate; while law-enforcement far-too-often looks the other way.
It's hard NOT to shed tears, and cry out WHY? ... When good men of peace and social justice, are struck down by the assassin's bullets of hate and fear.
WHY do people of "good will" find it so hard, to find a "true and lasting peace"?
If kids can find a way to bridge the differences ... WHY is it the adults, who always insist on remaining separate?
Haven't they learned, that it's important to share ? That's kindergarten 101.
It's hard to "hate someone" that rides the same bus that you to do ...
That is the power of "shared" human dignity, which can be arrived at by simply removing the "space between" us.
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"I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?"
-- Robert Francis Kennedy quotes (U.S. attorney general and adviser, 1925-1968)
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RFK was another one of my heroes, growing up in the 60's, in a time of great social unrest, from the ramshackle context of several different "ethnically mixed" working-class neighborhoods ...
And my childhood heroes then, taught me well, that
there is more that binds us together, than holds us apart.
If we just stop to care. ... Just stop to Listen.
Social Justice is a struggle, is a Dream, that can take a life-time to arrive at.
That fact, should not diminish the effort, to meet in the middle; to understand ... to laugh ... to share -- in life's many ironies.
What separates us is not insurmountable ... all it requires is to ...
To communicate, with those we do not yet know ... those we do not understand, at least not well enough. At least not yet.